Requited Love
by starryjules
Summary: "You got a new tattoo!" Ziva exclaimed.  Abby's face fell and her voice was subdued when she answered, "Yeah...this summer."  A short Ziva/Abby friendship story, equal parts fluff and gravity, from somewhere midseason 7.


**Another tag dust bunny that refused to be ignored. Which surprises me, because of all the conversations I felt we missed in season 7, Ziva/Abby was never one of them. I was satisfied with the Reunion scene... but in any case, this seemed fitting.**

**Pretty please leave a note; reviews are my drug of choice!**

**Disclaimer: Grammatical liberties are mine, characters are not.**

* * *

><p>"Abby no, not tonight."<p>

"Pullleeeasse Zeevah!" Abby whined, fingers in front of her grasped in supplication, lower lip jutting out in a pout.

Ziva bit her tongue to refrain from sighing out loud. She was not ready yet for the normalcy of nightclubs and bars, but she could see what this meant to Abby. After studying her friend for a long moment, she rolled her eyes and the suddenly happy goth knew she had won.

"Yay, yaay!" Abby squealed, throwing her arms up in triumph before bestowing a tight hug on Ziva. "I missed girls night out!" She took a step back and clapped her hands excitedly.

"Yes, it will be nice to get out for awhile," Ziva acquiesced for the sake of Abby's excitement. "Though I am a bit underdressed," she added, looking from her simple t-shirt and well-worn cargos to her friend's appearance. Abby had already changed into a pair of low slung plaid pants and a tight tank top adorned with red rhinestone skulls. A patch of unfamiliar color just above Abby's left hip bone caught Ziva's eye.

"You got a new tattoo!" She exclaimed, leaning in to examine it.

Abby followed her gaze. Her face clouded for a moment, but then she gave a small, sad smile and nodded. "Yeah. This summer," she said, her voice markedly subdued compared to just seconds ago.

"It looks like... jasmine flowers?" Ziva guessed, squinting at the white and green ink. "It is lovely with your lilies…" Her gaze flickered to Abby's other hip and the small tops of three white flowers. Ziva knew most of her friend's tattoos; personal homages to love and loss and faith. Abby had once shown her the simple digits - 5:4 - just below the graceful calla lilies' stems.

_Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted._

It was Abby's tribute to a dear friend, a sister, gunned down on a rooftop well before her time.

"What does the jasmine signify?" Ziva asked.

Abby didn't answer at first, and it came out as a solemn whisper when she finally did. "It was my way of remembering another member of my family that I lost." Abby pulled at her belt loop slightly to reveal a few simple characters beneath the new tattoo.

תודה

"Toda?" Ziva read softly, her voice wrapping around the familiar word like a question. She straightened up and gave Abby a look of genuine surprise. "For me?"

Abby grimaced at the shock in Ziva's face and then suddenly took a step forward - buckled platform boots jangling loudly in the quiet lab - to embrace her friend once more.

Ziva stood frozen, fighting a sudden swirl of emotions. At the very least, she had not realized how much Abby cared. Sure, Ziva always counted her as an integral piece of her dysfunctional and beloved adopted family. But seeing the jasmine tattoo, the small and irreparably broken part of Ziva felt the familiar twinges of disbelief that she was actually worthy of requited love. Unlike the voices - both real and imaginary - that had sneered at her from the dark corners of a dirty cell, this sweet and loving gesture from Abby reminded her that there were, in fact, people in her life that would care if she died.

Abby's voice startled her from her reverie. "Two sisters were taken away…" Abby pulled back slightly, her own eyes swimming, and brushed a tear from her friend's cheek. Ziva didn't realize until that moment that she was crying. "But one found her way back."

Ziva gave her a watery smile. "It is a beautiful gesture, Abby. It almost makes me feel guilty for being alive." She meant it to sound teasing, to lighten the mood, and move them away from these raw-edged emotions, but Abby heard the double meaning in those words. She saw a glimpse of the genuine and nagging guilt in Ziva's eyes; it had followed her friend home like the stubborn grains of desert sand that Tony still claimed to find in his apartment all these months later.

Abby took a long time weighing her answer. Finally she settled on simply squeezing Ziva's hand. "Toda...Thank you," Abby mused, "You came back to us Ziva...when we thought we'd lost you forever, you came back. I think the sentiment still works."

She let those words linger, sink in, for a moment, then gently tugged at Ziva's hand, leading her to the elevator. "C'mon, change of plans," Abby was suddenly her normal, effervescent self again, knowing that no more needed to be said tonight. "We're kidnapping Timmy and a couple of pizzas and crashing DiNozzo's pad!"

Ziva smiled genuinely and whispered a quiet _thank you_ as the elevator doors slid shut. She knew that she would have to continue battling, and in some cases embracing, her emotional demons. But she also knew she wouldn't have to do it alone. She was surrounded by family - who inexplicably loved her as much as she loved them - and they would make sure of it.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know Abby is more of a black rose kind of gal, but in my mind she would choose flowers that reminded her of Kate and Ziva.<strong>

**I am working on two real multi-chapter case/teamfics: one picking up where season 8 left off (and attempting to answer all those nagging questions) and one centering on some Ziva family history. And if I can stop these blasted tags from popping into my head, I hope to soon be far enough along to start posting those, so please check back!**

**Thanks for reading!**


End file.
